Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-12-29
LEPROSY IN LOUISIANA.

In recent number OF Harper Mug
aziRe, Mrs. Rebecca Harding Davis
takes one of her characters, Mr.. Ely,
into the Acadian country of Attakapas,
Louisiana, she says: Mr.. Ely and the
priest lodged in the house of one of
the petitS habita21ts. In the evening,
when they were alone, the subject of
leprosy came up.
1--WE hear at the North said Mr.
Ely. vague accounts Of the Terre DIES
Lepreux, which is said to Oe somewhere
in louisiana What truth is there in
them?"
s'They are no doubt greatly exag-
gerated," said Father Nedaud. "a
spurious leprosy, elephantiasis, was so
common among the negroes under the
Spanish Nominations that Governor
Miro founded a hospital for lepers
near New Orleans, on the Bayou St.
John. 1t has been gone these many
years, and Lepers' Land is now built
up with pretty houses. 1t was in the
suburb IRENE"
''The disease is extinct, then?"
F'There were some cases of genuine
Asiatic leprosy near AbbeVille, III this
parish, about twenty years ago. An
old creole lady was the first. Her
father doubtless brought the terrible
faint in his blood from France. When
the white scales appeared in her face
her husband and family fled from her.
There was young girl, daughter of
M'sieu Dubois, who went to her and
nursed her alone during the three
years in which she fought with death.
Another Of Gods servants, msieu!
Four of this old woman's children,
who deserted her, became lepers. The
young girl who had nursed her, after
she died married a young fernier, and
lived happily in her little cabin with
her husband and pretty baby. But
one day shining white spot appeared
on her forehead. That was the end. "
'sShe died?"
I'M sieu, after four years. There is
no cure. 1t surely does not matter to
her now by what road God called her
to Him. There have been since then
no lepers in this parish except in these
tainted families. The real Terre DIES
Lepreux in Louisiana is now on the
lower Lafourche, below HarangS Ca
nal. The bayou there is turbid and
foul; it flows through malarious
swamps lower than itself. The creole
planters are honest and temperate
folks, but they are wretchedly poor.
They raise only rice, and live on it and
fish. The wet rice fields come up to
the very doors of their cabins. The
leprosy which certain families among
them have inherited is developed byl
these conditions. Five years ago Pro
fessor Joseph Jones, president of the
State Board of Health, went himself
with his son to explore the cypress
sWamps and IagOons of the lower La
fourche. M'sieu, it is the region of the
shadow of death. He found many
poor lepers hiding there. They were
rs dead men who walk and talk.
They could handle burning Goals; they
felt no longer cold nor heat nor pain.
Their bodies were as corpses. One
man lived alone in hut, matched
with palmettoes, which he had built
for himself, eating only the rice which
he had planted. No man nor woman
had come near him for years. The
Terre DIES LepreuX extends as far as
Cheniere Caminada, where the bayou
empties into the Gulf"
Mr.. Ely remained silent, though a
torrent of angry queries rushed to his
lips. Why was nothing done to miti-
gate the horrors of such life-in-deathP
How could this priest, man of God,
SO calmly discuss these poor accursed
creatures from his safe, comfortable
point of vantage, jogging on his easy
going mare from one farm to another?
He babe him presently rather curt
good night, and went to the loft where
he was to sleep. When he came down
in the morning, Pere Nedaud had
gone. =
''M'sieu," said his smiling host, Gle
pere kat lief you bon-matin," waving
his hand to the black figure passing
southwark far across the prairie.
''Where is his charge nOw?"
''M'sieu-" Gaspard paused mo-
ment. SIN hell, I think. It is near
Cheniere Caminada, in la Terre des
Lepreux."
Mr.. Ely walked away from him, and
paced up and down the levee for q
long time.
God forgive mer he muttered to
hip,ca1f